I noticed this opinion piece in this morning’s Examiner; I guess my attention will be drawn to any item that features a picture of day laborers hanging out in front of Grace UMC in Gaithersburg. Ms. Barber’s commentary is mostly an I-told-you-so gloat:
Listening recently to frustrated folks call a local radio talk show to vent about illegal aliens loitering in front of stores and cramming into $400,000 houses in their neighborhoods, I wondered if those same liberals accused pro-enforcement Americans of being “nativists,” “xenophobes” and “racists” for complaining about the same problems.
Now that illegal aliens have migrated to their neighborhoods, such liberals have become pro-enforcement all of a sudden.
I read this item with some frustration: I thought that she had a point, but that her exposition of that point was deeply flawed. Her premise would appear to require that all owners of $400,000 suburban homes are generally clueless liberals, and her point seems to be that the movement of illegals into these liberal-infested neighborhoods is knocking the scales lose from these liberals’ eyes. Well, sure, there’s probably some of that. But I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that some of those houses contained complacent conservatives — or even the occasional libertarian landscaper who had heretofore been a prime contributer to the very job market that attracts these illegals — and that these residents are just now being woken from their slumber exactly as are their liberal neighbors. No, what Ms. Barber describes is not liberal nature so much as it is human nature. No one wants to believe that a problem exists until they are directly confronted with the consequences of that problem.
Whatever, Ms. Barber is soliciting the stories of those who are living in neighborhoods with illegal aliens. She says:
I’m working on a project and need your help. I’m looking for stories about your experiences living in neighborhoods with illegal aliens and competing with illegal aliens for jobs. Most importantly, I want to know how the culture of illegal aliens (in this case, Central Americans) has affected your life for the better or for the worse. You may respond in the comment section or privately at barbersview [at] yahoo [dot] com.
If you respond, be sure to note if you happen to not be a liberal but your thinking has still been changed by the sudden presence of illegals.
I’m not implying that only liberals live in $400,000 houses or that only liberals are seeing the light after living among illegal aliens of a different culture. I have no doubt that libertarians and conservatives also are waking up from their “slumber.” But I’m focusing on liberals because they’re typically the ones who preach to others about the value of “diversity” and support legalizing millions of lawbreakers.
You’re implying that liberals are somehow, by either geographic location or deliberate self-delusion, unaware or unconcerned about the deleterious effects of rampant illegal immigration. That is hardly the case. I am liberal, and I live in downtown Gaithersburg, smack in the middle of one of the most crime-ridden areas in the DC Metro region. My immediate neighborhood is over 80 percent Latino, and I am living with MS-13 on one side street, and Crips and Bloods on the other side.
And I have been despairing of this for over a decade, and have been complaining of it, often vociferously. The arguments I get in response from what you would call “liberals” are generally far from delight at the scenario, but at least a plea to be empathetic. On the other hand, the arguments I get from “conservatives” are generally along the lines of either “earn more money so that you can move away from them”, or else “this economy wouldn’t survive without them, so learn to live with it.”
And I blame George W. Bush more than just about anything for this, because he completely and unequivocally CAVED-IN on the issue in his entire tenure: sucking up to Vincente Fox, and to the Texas agribusiness and meatpacking interests who profit mightily by illegally employing those people.
And none of them, none of them at all, have to live in the middle of it like I do. So, I have no illusion about conservatives having any more “insight” or “truth” about the matter than anyone else.
What does Ms. Barber suggest should be done?
What we need is a National ID Card that positively identifies us as LEGAL US Citizens. Without that card anyone who hires goes to jail. Whether a contractor hiring a drywall hanger, houswife hiring a maid, restaurant owner hiring a dishwasher, mother hiring a nanny, business owner hiring a janitor. As long as there are jobs here and our law enforcement officers have been neutered by politicians who are bought and paid for or deranged ideologues, they will come. They only come here for money, they do not want to be US citizens. So if the money is gone so will they be.
Sen. Alan Simpson recently admitted that his 1986 Amnesty Bill passed under Reagan failed when Democrats removed the national id clause.
Without the ability to control our borders and with the desire on the part of idiots like our County Council who mandate the payment of benefits to all without consideration for legal status, our nation is bankrupt.
So liberals and conservatives alike will be sitting in the third world that used to be the USA.